Library Services kicks off the new year with new subscriptions, staff

 

Welcome to 2025! We have a lot of exciting things happening this month. Most exciting is that Patient Education and Library Service are now a team. Joining the Patient Education department is Deb Kamholz, Patient Education specialist, and Ryan Fauglid, Patient Education associate. Deb joined Allina Health in 2005 as the marketing and communications manager at Owatonna Hospital and joined the Allina Health Corporate Communications team in 2011. Ryan is a recent college graduate from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communications with a minor in Public Health. 

 

Both Deb and Ryan have excellent communication, design, and health literacy skills and are a great addition to the team. Find out more about Patient Education here. 

 

Journal subscriptions

In addition to new staff and services, we are also excited to announce that by cleaning up some redundant subscriptions, we were able to free up funds for three new journal subscriptions:

These journals were chosen based on demand. If you’d like us to consider a new journal, email us at library@allina.com.  

 

Facebook, Instagram break up with fact checkers

For many consumers, social media is their only source of information. Recently, Meta announced that Facebook and Instagram would be removing restrictions on speech and ending fact-checking. According to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, fact-checkers create “too much censorship” and are “too politically biased [which] has destroyed more trust than they created.” Ironically, fact checkers do not censor content.  

 

The implications for health information

Facebook and Instagram serve billions of users and provide news and health information. Removing fact-checkers will have major implications for us in health care. As health care professionals, we will need to be alert to misinformation on social media platforms and respond to misinformation.

 

How can Library Services help

Fortunately, you can count on Library Services to steer you toward reliable information with respected resources for health-related topics that you can share with patients. 

 

Recreating Library Services for hospital patients     

On a recent tour of the Hennepin County Library Special Collections in Minneapolis, we learned there was a tradition of public libraries offering library services to patients in the hospital. 

We weren’t aware of that, and it struck us how, in some small way, we are continuing this tradition  with our Little Free Library at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.  Thank you to all who recently donated books for our patients and Care Team Members to enjoy! 

Public Library Services were offered from the 1920s to the mid-1960s at several metro hospitals, including Abbott Hospital. 

Photo courtesy of the Hennepin County Library